Isabell Šuba has made it – or so she thinks! One of her short films is screening at the world’s largest film festival. But instead of red carpet and caviar, her chauvinistic producer and an overbooked hotel await her in Cannes.
In a partnership of convenience, the two are trying to find investors for a new project, unfortunately to no avail. Isabell looks reality straight in the eye: David’s neanderthal-like behavior is no exception. Even in Cannes, there is no exception to the rule: men show their movies, women show their breasts!
This movie is an experiment with reality. In 2012 the “real” director Isabell Šuba transformed her invitation to the 65th Festival de Cannes into her latest filmproject. During the whole course of the festival she gave her identity to actress Anne Haug and accredited herself as film student Anne Woelky. “Men show movies and women their breasts” was shot in five days without any funding. It is supposed to point the way for equality of opportunities for men and women in the movie industry, for female role models which need to be established alongside men. But how is that supposed to work out when German funding goes almost always to male filmmakers? It’s time for change,, for new women à la Isabell Šuba: talented. self-confident, fierce.

Cult director-actresss Asia Argento explores new ground with this Technicolor yet melancholy coming of age drama. Rome, 1984, Aria is nine-year-old girl. On the verge of divorce, Aria's infantile and selfish parents are too preoccupied with their careers and extra-marital affairs to properly tend to any of Aria's needs. While her two older sisters are pampered, Aria is treated with cold indifference. Yet she yearns to love and to be loved. At school, Aria excels academically but is considered a misfit by everyone. She is misunderstood. Aria finds comfort in her cat - Dac and in her best friend - Angelica. Thrown out of both parents' homes, abandoned by all, even her best friend, Aria finally reaches the limit of what she can bear. She makes an unexpected decision in her life. (Cannes Film Festival)

RUINED HEART is a Filipino-German "punk noir opera“ by enfant terrible auteur-musician Khavn de la Cruz, with cinematography by the legendary Christopher Doyle and score by Brezel Göring of Stereo Total.
The short film version screened in competition at the Berlinale and was expanded to feature length. Somewhere in Manila, a crime boss rules with an iron fist. He uses religion and violence to stay in power. What superstition and razzle dazzle don’t accomplish, his goons do. To his most loyal henchman he gives the task of guarding his woman, who is headstrong and impulsive, and often gets into trouble. Before long, she falls in love with the henchman, and the star-crossed lovers decide to leave town. Fighting ensues. It is while on the run that they finally get to know each other for the first time… “But sex and violence aren’t really what this very physical film is about; it comes closer to a joyful, wild and dizzying engagement with fleeting life, which includes moments of tenderness and various moods of love.“ (The Hollywood Reporter)

THE ISLE is a dramatic love story written and directed by South Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk.
It follows an unlikely couple who develop a love for each other despite the unusual circumstances. The film was the fifth film made by Kim, and the first to receive wider international acclaim for his recognizable style. It also became notorious for being difficult to watch, with stories of viewers vomiting or passing out during the more gruesome scenes when the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. "This is the most gruesome and quease-inducing film you are likely to have seen. You may not even want to read the descriptions in this review. Yet it is also beautiful, angry and sad, with a curious sick poetry, as if the Marquis de Sade had gone in for pastel landscapes.“ (Roger Ebert)

The Bollywood comedy-action fantasy EEGA is a bedtime story narrated by a father to his daughter whose protagonist is Nani, a murdered man reincarnated as a simple housefly. As a human, Nani wished to win Bindu's love which she never reciprocated directly. Sudeep, a rich and ruthless businessman, lusts for Bindu and sees Nani as a potential competitor. After being murdered by Sudeep, Nani reincarnates as a fly and aims to protect Bindu besides seeking revenge against him… EEGA won several major Indian film awards and became a cult favorite at festivals abroad.

CineMAA Awards: Family Entertainer, Best Visual Effects, Best Villain, Best Actress; Times of India Film Awards: Best Film; Best Director; Best Villain; Best Male Playback Singer; Toronto After Dark Film Festival: Special Award

In the badlands of Delhi's underbelly, TITLI, the youngest member of a violent car-jacking brotherhood, plots a desperate bid to escape the 'family' business. His schemes are thwarted by his unruly brothers, who marry him off against his will. But Titli finds an unlikely ally in his new wife, Neelu, who nurtures her own frustrated dreams. They form a strange, mutually exploitative pact to break the stranglehold of their family roots. But is escape the same as freedom? "Grittily impressive noir debut." (Variety)

BLANK CITY tells the long-overdue tale of a disparate crew of renegade filmmakers who emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous moment in New York history. In the late 1970's and mid 80's, when the city was still a wasteland of cheap rent and cheap drugs, these directors crafted daring works that would go on to profoundly influence the development of independent film as we know it today.Directed by French newcomer Céline Danhier, BLANK CITY weaves together an oral history of the “No Wave Cinema” and “Cinema of Transgression” movements through compelling interviews with the luminaries who began it all.

TARDI - SCHWARZ AUF WEISS is a documentary portrait of French comic auteur Jacques Tardi, one of the world's most significant graphic novelists. "Fine example of a documentary that shows an artist at work." (Michael Baute, tip Magazine)
Director Pierre-André Sauvageot followed Jacques Tardi for two years to create this intimate insight into Tardi's creative process: from his research into political and historical topics to the actual drawing of his graphic novel panels.

The documentary THE SOUND OF SILENTS by Ilona Ziok is journey through the life and music of Berlin musician Willy Sommerfeld, who at 100 years old during the film's production was the oldest silent film pianist alive, and into the world of movies as it was when cinema was born. "The film ist so beautiful and intelligent! The highlight of what we have seen during the Berlin Film Festival! (Dan and Toby Talbot, The New Yorker)
He's treated like a rock star by audiences young and old, adored by film lovers and housewives alike, venerated by scholars and punks: Willy Sommerfeld, born in 1904, is a silent movie pianist—the last of his kind, a living legend with a musical memory reaching back more than a century. He first performed in the Roaring Twenties. Today, at age 100, he is still going strong – still accompanying film live on piano and spontaneously composing the “soundtrack” to movies. THE SOUND OF SILENTS not only revisits a century of cinema history through Sommerfeld's eyes (and ears), it is a loving tribute to the aesthetic and narrative power of silent film.

An award-winning, authentic film about the Holocaust. “It’s a well done, very moving documentary.” (Roman Polanski)
The film title KURT GERRON'S CAROUSEL refers to the cabaret theater that Kurt Gerron started in 1943 while an inmate of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. A star of Berlin theater and cabaret life, and one of the most successful film directers at the UFA, Gerron, who was Jewish, emigrated to Paris in 1933 and then to Amsterdam, where he was interned in 1942, deported to Theresienstadt and finally murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
This film traces his life through the testimony of contemporaries, excerpts and song performancesof Kurt Gerron's work. He became known in the 1920s thanks to his song "I am the night specter". In 1928 Gerron played Tiger Brown in the premiere of "The Threepenny Opera” with the ballad of "Mack the Knife". When he came to Theresienstadt in 1943, he started a cabaret, where many concentration camp inmates might once again have a good laugh before they were transported to Auschwitz the next day. Here Gerron was convinced - with the promise to get free from the NS-persuaded - to direct the propaganda film "The Führer donates a City to the Jews”, in order to deceive the foreign countries about the true nature of Theresienstadt. Shortly thereafter Gerron ended up in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Ilona Ziok's documentary about Germany's most prominent state prosecutor and a pioneer of modern "civil society". Fritz Bauer's name is linked with Eichmann's extradition to Israel, the legendary Auschwitz trials and the founding of the Humanistic Union.
This film not only provides the exciting biographical depiction of a unique life, it also paints an impressive portrait of one of the most important lawyers of the 20th century.
“As Attorney General for Hesse from 1956–68, Fritz Bauer was the key initiator in the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Bauer also played an important role in the seizure of Adolf Eichmann: he informed Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad of the whereabouts of the 'architect of the Holocaust' so that Eichmann could be brought to trial in Jerusalem. Fritz Bauer also pushed for reforms to the penal system, the humanization of which was he believed integral to a humane society.”
During the restorative climate of the Adenauer era, Bauer became the 'agent provocateur of the age'. With Gerhard Szczesny, Bauer founded the Humanistic Union, a civil rights organization, in 1961. His life as a Swabian Jew in Germany was subject to antisemitism and political hostility. Bauer was found dead in his Frankfurt apartment on June 30, 1968. The circumstances of his death have remained unsolved to this day.”
Source: 60th Berlin International Film Festival (Catalogue)

From Jamin Winans, writer and director of the cult smash hit, INK, comes THE FRAME, a mind-bending science fiction thriller about two strangers who find their lives colliding as they race through a maze of an ever-changing universe while being pursued by a demonic man determined to erase the world.
Alex (David Carranza) is a cargo thief working for a dangerous cartel. Sam (Tiffany Mualem) is a determined paramedic trying to save the world while running from her past. Suddenly and mysteriously, Alex and Sam's lives crash into each other and the fabric of reality is ripped from underneath their feet. Taking on the very root of fate, destiny, and their own existence, Alex and Sam race through a maze of an ever-changing universe while being pursued by a demonic man determined to erase the world.

MANDELA'S LOST CHILDREN shares the human side of homelessness in South Africa. Despite incredible stress and danger, the people on the street would rather search for items that the rich throw out and sell them, than steal or commit crimes.
Whilst Cape Town has recently been voted the world’s No1 tourist destination, it has 130,000 people living in shacks and 35% of the inhabitants live under the poverty line (less than R3500/£195) per month. But it has a community of people who live in even poorer conditions….there are an estimated 7,000 street people who live on the edge, fighting for survival each day. They are one of the world’s biggest populations of street people and are fighting back against what they claim is a callous disregard for their plight. Authorities are trying to move them on from parks and public amenities which fear they will lose their tourist appeal once overrun by the growing army of homeless. The cruel mentality of “out of sight, out of mind” has infiltrated the actions and policies of both the authorities and some residents. The well being of a street persons dog seems to weigh more heavily on the consciences of many than that of the actual street person. But a number of influential residents in the cape are taking up the cause.

MOP KING had a sold-out World Premiere at the 2013 Austin Film Festival. Bears Fonté, Austin Film Festival Programmer, described it as “One of the funniest films to come across my desk at AFF”. Audiences call it a cross between Napoleon Dynamite and Dumb and Dumber. Watch at your own peril...
Prepare to have your funny bone broken, as this irreverent and raunchy comedy throws all the punches and more! Jed is a freelance maid struggling to maintain his slacker man-child lifestyle. He encounters Deborah, a beer-guzzling, chain-smoking young lady who wants nothing more than to sleep in a bed bug free mattress. Together they experience the ups and downs of chasing their dreams. Cringe-worthy wrestling matches, a lap dance you won’t ever forget, and hypodermic needle soccer are just the tip of this comedic iceberg.

Sometimes, even dreams have nightmares. SODIUM PARTY follows Claire through a harrowing childhood to university where she meets Danny, a frequently intoxicated photographer who exposes her to real life through a cocktail of love and drugs. Their relationship is tested when ghosts of Claire's tumultuous past manifest through super 8 home movie footage, causing her world to unravel.
Dreams and the lives of others fill her as she fights against her own destiny. "A fairy tale, an imaginary playmate, nightmares, repressed memories and home movies deliver a bag of visual tricks." (Chicago Sun Times)

Peloponnesian International Film Festival; Overlook - 5th CinemAvvenire Film Festival

Festivals

IndieCork Film Festival; Chicago Irish Film Festival; NuHo Film Festival; Sundown Film Festival Perth; 9th Cyprus International FIlm Festival; Underground Cinema Film Festival; Phnom Penh International Film Festival; Oshkosh Horror Film Festival; Sky Road International Film Festival; Cinemático Film Festival

A black comedy, I'M NOT PATRICK follows Seth, a teenager whose twin brother, Patrick, suddenly committed suicide. Seth doesn’t know what to feel, but everyone else is eager to suggest what they imagine to be typical reactions to monozygotic suicide.
The debut film from the production wing of "pioneering literary press" (Tribeca Film Festival), Two Dollar Radio, whose work has been honored by the National Book Foundation, Editors' Choice picks at the New York Times, and Finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Whether it’s the rival twins’ landscaping company encroaching on Seth’s turf, or the school guidance counselor hovering close-by, or the French club electing him honorary president (a position that Patrick had occupied), Seth struggles to assert his individuality and insist that "I’m not Patrick."

INK released to an incredible Aint it Cool News review that triggered immediate cult status. The trailers have over 2 million hits on YouTube and it was one of the most downloaded movies the year of its release. INK continues to find a steady fan base among Sci Fi fans everywhere. Father and daughter are thrust into a fantastical dream-world battle between forces of good and evil in this allegorical tale of love, loss and the search for redemption.
As the light fades and the city goes to sleep, two forces emerge. They are invisible except for the power they exert over us in our sleep, battling for our souls through dreams. One force delivers hope and strength through good dreams; the other infuses the subconscious with desperation through nightmares. John and Emma, Father and Daughter are wrenched into this fantastical dream world battle, forced to fight for John's soul and to save Emma from an eternal nightmare. Separate in their journey, they encounter unusual characters that exist only in their subconscious. Or do they?

DRAG BECOMES HIM is an intimate glimpse inside the life of internationally acclaimed drag performer Jinkx Monsoon. Monsoon won season 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race and tours the world for 10 months out of every year. The film follows the passionate pursuits that transformed a working class boy in a struggling family to an illustrious performer on a global stage.
This raw but affectionate film follows the passionate pursuits that transformed a working class boy in a struggling family to an illustrious performer on a global stage. Influenced by a grandmother with charm school polish, Jerick Hoffer learned to fuse the sophistication of a southern belle with the crass behavior of a working girl. Jinkx Monsoon has what RuPaul describes as “a stage left, off center kind of quality.” Drag Becomes Him follows Jinkx’s trajectory from a small stage in Portland, Oregon through a growing career in Seattle to the relinquishing of the crown one year after winning Season Five of LOGO TV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race. Expanded from the acclaimed five-part web series of the same name, this cherished portrayal of Jinkx Monsoon peels back the layers on one of the brightest stars on the drag circuit

Food for the belly and food for the soul, FAITH HOPE AND BBQ is a delightful, tasty and charming look at a small town, rural Florida, African American "Church built on BBQ." Down a two-lane road in a backwater Florida town, tiny New Hope Missionary Baptist Church stands as testament to faith, hope, hard work, and the best tasting barbecue for miles.
In FAITH HOPE AND BBQ, you'll meet the Pastor / Preacher / Barbecue Man, the Sunday School Teacher who guards her collard green recipe, the congregation who pray, the customers who pay, and the choir ladies who “Amen” that fine slab of ribs. Food for the belly, and food for the soul, Faith Hope and BBQ is a charming and funny character study with genuine, likeable rural Florida folk who live far off the well-worn tourist paths. Like many small churches in America today, New Hope has to work hard, just to survive. But hard work is nothing new to the close-knit 60-member congregation. Faced with eviction over 20 years ago, the church leaders of the time sold barbecue from a roadside stand to purchase land and build the church where it stands today. Now the church needs renovation and modernization. But the economic realities of a small church in a small town in hard times call for something more than charity, or the Sunday offering plate. Undeterred, the members of New Hope, led by Pastor Scotty, son of one of the original New Hope barbecue pioneers, once again turn to faith, and the work they know - cooking and serving the best barbecue around.

Hawaii's first major motion picture comedy, GET A JOB 'is a name droppers delight - a who's who of Hawaiian musicians and entertainers" (Hawaii Tribune-Herald) with a tropical soundtrack by the award-winning Barefoot Natives. A laugh out loud multi-cultural plate-lunch of surprise and hilarity about an employment agent who, to save his own job, has to find work for the most unemployable man on Maui. ...

In H.O.P.E. WAS HERE college students embark on a weeklong goodwill trip to the slums of Lima, Peru. A documentary about whether the millennial trend of volunteering abroad, or "voluntourism," really makes a difference.
Affluent, Boston-based college students embark on a weeklong goodwill trip to the slums of Lima, Peru in this story about the phenomenon of volunteer vacations—also known as "voluntourism" or service trips—which have fast become both a hallmark of global citizenry and a point of controversy for socially conscious millennials. In their attempts to teach English and rehab developmentally disabled children, the students must confront the reality of their work and whether or not it’s creating positive change. A fresh take on a classic moral dilemma, H.O.P.E. Was Here deals with the intersection of privilege and poverty by asking what it really means to help people.

Narrated by Billy Baldwin, THE BREACH is the first feature documentary on Iceland's controversial whaling industry. Billy Baldwin narrates this compelling exposé of Iceland's brutal and tragic whaling industry. The film reveals the country's defiant & illegal commercial whale hunting against a backdrop of greed, whale-watch tourism and fierce local nationalism.
When filmmaker Jonny Zwick learned that endangered Fin whales and Minke whales were being slaughtered for commercial gain in Iceland, he quit his job and moved to Reykjavik for three months to film this archaic practice. The film exposes the country's defiant and illegal participation in commercial whale hunting against a backdrop of worldwide debates, international tourism, fierce nationalism, and political intrigue. Iceland, Japan, and Norway are the only countries in the world to continue this antiquated practice. And of the three, Iceland is the only country to hunt the endangered Finback whale. Ignoring international law, Iceland's politicians, scientists, and businessmen encourage the continuation of the hunt, convinced that these migratory mammals are their resources to exploit.

Two childhood friends meet again for the first time since a tragic accident when they were kids that defined both of their lives in completely different ways.
"COMMON GROUNDS is an intense and complex story that is somehow told convincingly and with the closure we need going away from it within the relatively short span of a 36+ plus minute short. While the film largely centers upon the characters of Spencer and Danny as adults, the truth is I was mesmerized by the scenes of the two in their childhood. These scenes could have so easily been gimmicky, especially given that we see them more than once but, alas, they are not gimmicky." (The Independent Critic)

Oskar and Leo are four-year-old twins. Oskar has been deaf since birth while Leo's hearing is perfect. Both boys have grown up learning sign language. The director of this documentary is also fluent in sign language, allowing him to interact directly with the young brothers and closely document their discoveries and learning processes.
This film explores what the diagnosis 'deaf' means to Oskar's hearing parents. Sandra and Stefan. Two parents. Two different reactions. And the challenge of raising the whole family in a foreign language.

BOSTON NIGHTLY IN LONG TERM PARKING is a racy, sexy, riotous comedy based on Mike Kearby’s crime novel about a bounty hunter chased by two women who love him to death.
Boston Nightly is a bounty hunter whose life has gone to the dogs. And since his last fatal encounter with a Mafia hitman, he's doomed to bounce between heaven and earth seeking justice and peace. He only has two problems: the women who love him and want him dead permanently.

The drama MAHJONG AND THE WEST offers a rare glimpse into the adrenaline-junky world of cowboy and rodeo culture. Starring Tom Guiry, beloved child actor from "The Sandlot." A city girl returns to Wyoming to bury her mother after 15 years away. Seeing her childhood best friend reminds her why she left. A gritty portrait of two young woman running from a violent, troubled past-- finding comfort in booze, sex, and bull riding.
When a hit and run accident kills her mother, Maddy, a young New York designer, returns to rural Wyoming for the first time in fifteen years. While staying with her Mahjong-playing grandmother, Maddy reconnects with Kate, an old childhood friend with whom she shares a violent, troubled past. As both women tiptoe around their trauma, they run toward thrills and comfort—booze, sex, and bull riding. After a run-in with the law, Maddy is forced to stay longer than she had planned. Pressure builds as she and Kate realize they can't erase their past-- they have to either make peace with it, or die trying to escape it.

Twenty seven years after his first appearance, it's CAPTAIN BERLIN VERSUS HITLER for Germany's only superhero. Berlin cult director Jörg Buttgereit has filmed his stage play (based on a radio play in turn inspired by Buttgereit's 1982 short film) as a slice of “pop anti-fascism” (Marcus Stiglegger) before “Iron Sky” was even a twinkle in its creator's' eyes.
The story goes that after the Nazis took power during 1933, the resistance took great pains to find a way to end Adolf Hitler’s evil dictatorship. They formulated a plan to bio-engineer super-human assassins, eventually finding their man in one ‘Captain Berlin’ (Jürg Plüss). However, Captain Berlin’s attempt on the life of the fuehrer was unsuccessful, subsequently forcing him to go underground and adopt a new identity.
It’s now 1973 in West Berlin; the former Captain has been carving out a living as a leftwing journalist, whose communist writings have been greatly upsetting the sexy but slightly deranged Dr. Ilse von Blitzen (Claudia Steiger) - former personal physician of Hitler. Fortunately for her, toward the end of WWII, Hitler’s attempt in taking his own life backfired: he managed to miss his own brain, which was hurriedly gathered by the feisty red-head so that she might one day resurrect him. 28 years later von Blitzen creates a body from the bones and tissue of fallen soldiers to provide a vessel for Hitler’s googly-eyed brain. But von Blitzen needs one more thing: the blood of Dracula (Adolfo Assor), who has been laying dormant in a crypt on the outskirts of Brandenburg. With his blood she can grant Hitler immortality and unimaginable powers, but she’s going to have to present the count with a young virgin...

This is where it all started... Jörg Buttgereit, a leading light of the West Berlin underground film scene, first brought his venerable superhero to the screen in CAPTAIN BERLIN SAVES THE WORLD, with the maestro himself donning cape, tights and mask as he fights evil and saves his own true love.
The Captain Berlin character was created by Buttgereit in the early 1980s and first appeared in his Super 8 short film CAPTAIN BERLIN - RETTER DER WELT (CAPTAIN BERLIN SAVES THE WORLD). In this film, Buttgereit himself plays Captain Berlin in a yellow jumpsuit with red briefs worn on the outside, capped off by a Spiderman mask and a repurposed flag worn as a cape. Clearly the product of a punk sensibility slamming head-on into a love of the 1960s "Batman" teevee show. The film is funny to watch but low on stuff like "production values," "plot," and "sense."

The world’s first feature documentary film screened in virtual reality cinema, SEARCHING FOR HELL is a visually bold exploration by five international film crews of nothing less than the concept of Hell across various cultures. “This is an absolutely triumphant work.” (Film Sprites)
SEARCHING FOR HELL is a feature documentary and transmedia project exploring the theme of contemporary hell through various means of artistic and social expression. The SEARCHING FOR HELL film starts out as a quest to discover the truth behind the story of digging a hole to Hell – the deepest bore hole in the world – in Siberia in the 1980s. From there, it continues across different continents, cultures and ideas, in an attempt to discover what and where Hell is today. Five film-making teams embarked on a journey to tell the personal and creative stories of people inhabiting contemporary Hells all over the world; the township-turned-theme-park of Hell in Michigan, a house converted into a morbid vision of Buddhist Hell in Japan, a deadly sulphur lake in Indonesia, and the dark present-day Congo. They are all doors to Hell. This creative and original feature documentary and transmedia project – SEARCHING FOR HELL – will walk you through those doors, examining Hell’s geographical, cultural and social realities.

MOUNT JOY is a drama about love and friendship set in the indie music world. Just as romance is budding between an alt. rock band's lead singer and manager and the group gets ready for its first national tour, the manager disappears without a trace... “Appealing visual and musical package.” (Variety)
With an upcoming national tour, musicians in the local Pennsylvania band “The Living Daylights” are on the verge of making it big. But the sudden disappearance of the lead singer Sue's girlfriend Alex and her devastating secret could end it all. With a pulsing indie rock soundtrack, this award-winning film packs a sonic and emotional punch. MOUNT JOY is a portrait of what it means to sacrifice everything for the dreams of those you love. Inspired by true events.